Auction drafting is my favorite way to build a fantasy football team. While the general idea of this format is to allow every owner an equal opportunity to acquire players, it combines the ability to value a player’s potential contribution with managing a budget, all while testing a drafter’s patience. Perhaps most importantly, I feel it tests the conviction a fantasy owner has in certain players more than a snake draft ever will. Furthermore, it rewards the prepared and punishes the unprepared. In snake drafts, it is obvious to anyone using a reliable and well-organized draft board when a player is slipping. In auctions, owners need to be keenly aware of what players are left and balance that against their remaining funds. Owners must decide what players they like the most and to what degree they are willing to go to secure their services, which is perhaps the best part of auctions - along with the aforementioned fact that every owner has an equal opportunity to land each player.

This coming season will mark the 13th year I have participated in The Huddle Expert Auction League. Over the first 12 seasons, FFToday made the six-team playoff 11 times and advanced to the championship game on seven occasions, winning it all three times. Suffice it to say my approach has proven to be effective.

This year’s draft was held on August 19, so keep that date in mind as you review the prices below (both the price each player went for and the value at which I set for him), especially as it relates to James Robinson, Travis Etienne, Sony Michel and Darrell Henderson. This draft took place about four days before Etienne got hurt and about a week before the Rams traded for Michel.

General Auction Considerations/Strategies

I decided this year that it would be wise to share some insight into what I believe has contributed to my success in auction formats. There are obviously more than seven auction "rules" to observe, but this should be a helpful list for most managers.

1. Use auction values customized to your league's settings.

This may seem like a "duh" statement, but you would be surprised how many fantasy owners don't do this. One size does not fit all. For the veteran fantasy owner who wants to create their own (which I recommend), this objective can be achieved by studying the values of players in your league over the last year or two - especially for those at the top of each position. When you can be confident in the price ceiling for Patrick Mahomes, Christian McCaffrey, Davante Adams and Travis Kelce, it makes valuing every other player below them much easier. I set my prices for players at what I believe should be their ceiling, so I don't go over my valuation on a player unless there is a specific objective on trying to accomplish at that particular moment.

2. Find a way to easily identify "your guys."

Time is of the essence in most auctions, so fantasy managers should have a quick and easy way to identify a player they are targeting as they scroll up and down their lists. (I bolded and underlined the players' names in hours and days leading up to this draft.) One of the best features of an auction is that every fantasy manager has the same opportunity to land each player - at least at the beginning of the draft. If you want a certain player enough, odds are you will probably get him.

3. Identify the players you want as the core of your team.

This is slightly different from the preceding paragraph in that we are talking about a group of two or three foundation pieces as opposed to a group of 30-40 players you would like to have on the team.

4. Setting positional budgets is overrated.

While I can see how it might be helpful for the new auction player, I have never set a pre-draft budget for any auction. Much like snake drafting, fantasy owners should do whatever they can to avoid backing themselves into a corner or creating more obstacles for themselves. Some snake drafts dictate that we focus on building around receivers, others around running backs and still others give us a healthy mix. A similar thing can happen in auctions. What if your budget at running back is 40 percent and half of the other owners' budgets are 45-50 percent? Chances are your running back-centric focus will need to become receiver-focused, making it one more thing you need to adjust to on the fly. It makes much more sense to figure out before the draft how you want to build around an Adams or a Kelce or who you deem is an acceptable low-end RB1 if the initial RB-centric plan does not work.

5. Nominate with a purpose.

Nominating early in an auction draft should be about either getting your foundation pieces or setting the expectation for a tier. In other words, if I nominate DK Metcalf and believe he is an elite WR1, it should be because I want him or want to know if I can trust my valuations for the rest of that tier. After the first few rounds, I tend to nominate "buzzy" players with an eye on trying to get my fellow owners to empty their pockets a bit earlier than they would like.

6. Monitor the roster needs and (especially) the budgets of the other managers. Use "the hammer" when you have it.

The first sentence should be self-explanatory. It really comes into play in the middle part of your draft and definitely toward the end of it. The second sentence is one of the best parts of an auction: a player you desire is available and you have the most money (and/or the highest max bid) remaining. For example, Tee Higgins has somehow escaped nomination through 150 picks and no one else in the room can bid more than $10. As long as you trust yourself not to pursue any other "eye candy," feel free to watch other owners continue to pass him by - making him an even better value. If that doesn't sound like fun (it should), then that is the moment you want to drop "the hammer" on the rest of the room.

7. For the love of all that is good, do not leave money on the table in an auction!

There is a reason this piece of advice is mentioned in virtually every auction draft piece. There is absolutely no reason not to spend every dollar you have in an auction. One of the most egregious examples I have witnessed was in a high-stakes auction last year where an owner left $17 on the table. Using this draft as an example, $17 would buy any of the following: all but two of the quarterbacks, Damien Harris, Amari Cooper/Adam Thielen or all but three of the tight ends. You probably cannot afford to bypass that kind of talent.

Pre-draft

The dream scenario entering this particular auction was securing McCaffrey and Kelce. Short of that, I wanted Kelce and Calvin Ridley to complement two clear starters at running back. I was determined not to overspend at quarterback (I was focused on Ryan Tannehill as someone I expected to get around $5). Doing all this should allow me to build a rock-solid receiving corps, especially considering how deep the position is.

The Draft

Bolded players are ones I would encourage auction drafters to target in their auction drafts, as I did in mine. The key is picking players to target from several different tiers and expected cost valuations.

Below you will find the actual prices that secured a player’s services (Act $) and the price I valued them at before the draft (My $). A dash in the first column means a player was not nominated. The green highlight represents winning bids for FF Today. Finally, I will follow each position group with some of my thoughts.

All values are based on a $200 cap and players are organized by “My $”. All of the players that were nominated are included. I removed several players that are unlikely to go in auctions in 12-team leagues with 18-man rosters or for other common-sense reasons.

Required starters: 1 QB, 2 RBs, 3 WRs, 1 Flex, 1 K and 1 Defense/Special Teams unit.

Strategy: Generally speaking - and especially in leagues that award four points per passing touchdown - I want my starting quarterback to be a capable run threat. This means I want a floor of at least 200-300 rushing yards and a few scores on the ground, especially in a league such as this one in which passing TDs are worth four points. There are 14 quarterbacks I am comfortable starting right now and perhaps four more (Lance, Fields, Tagovailoa and Ryan) who could easily join them. In short, it's a deep position. Auction league owners would do well to remember that; there's not much of a reason to spend more than $10 at the position, if only because it will almost certainly wind up costing you a potential starter at another position later in the draft.

For example, would you rather have Murray and a $1 player or Brady and Tyler Boyd ($11)? Jackson and a $1 player or Herbert and James Robinson ($12). Pounce on Allen or Mahomes if they go incredibly cheap. Otherwise, play the matchup game. I did not intend to grab a third quarterback (Burrow) until I saw he was still available nearly 200 nominations into the draft. He possesses significantly more upside than anyone else that was left. I would rather be in a position where I have to figure out how to manage Brady-Herbert-Burrow than the alternative. (More on this later.)

Total spent at QB: $10

One of the best parts of auction drafting is looking back and seeing how a player usually available in the fifth or sixth round like Javonte Williams ($24) went for more than someone like Swift ($22), who is usually off the board in the middle of the third. There is a lesson to be learned here, however. Bidding wars are almost inevitable in auctions because desperation sets in once managers realize they could miss out on the last player in a tier. That's not to say that Williams won't prove to be worth his cost, but he is much more likely to go around the price I have set for him in most auctions ($16) and what he went for the King's Classic ($17) than the number he went for in this auction.

For the second straight year in this league, one owner double-dipped in the elite running back pool and came away with McCaffrey ($60) and Barkley ($40). (To make matters worse, he also double-dipped in the elite wide receiver pool by snagging Davante Adams and Tyreek Hill for $43 apiece.) Anyone capable of doing some quick math knows that means he spent $186 (of his $200) on four players, leaving him with 14 players for $1 apiece to round out his roster. The upside of such an approach is obvious. The downside is as well. (Last year, the same owner went McCaffrey-Barkley-CEH. It did not end well for him, especially after I outbid everyone for Mike Davis on waivers.)

Strategy: As much as we all love to have at least one good one, running backs were overvalued in this draft. A few years ago, I was a strong proponent of doing whatever it took to get my top-ranked running back. At the time, it was cost-efficient to do so. The sub-$50 cost also allowed me to build a balanced lineup. As the league has adjusted their stance on spending at least 25 percent of their cap for one player, I have also had to adjust my stance on selling out for the likes of McCaffrey. Positional advantages come in different shapes and sizes, so while McCaffrey is the most obvious - and arguably the most fun - one to have, he is priced to the point where he almost has to produce 2,000 total yards and 15 touchdowns to be worth his cost. Can he do it? Obviously. Is it worth it? That is debatable. McCaffrey is certainly worth $50 and then some, but he's the only one. Elliott and Chubb (and maybe even Gibson) could have huge seasons, but the opportunity cost is just too great in a league where most of the owners know what they are doing. When one player eats up between 25-30 percent of your cap, your fortunes pretty much ride on him staying healthy even though he plays the fantasy position most likely to get hurt.

Thankfully, Ekeler ($42) and his workload concerns have kept his price intact. I'm not exactly of the belief he is the West Coast version of Kamara now that longtime Saints assistant Joe Lombardi is calling the shots on offense for the Chargers, but Ekeler has legitimate 100-catch upside. I spent more than I wanted to on Carson ($34), but it was an eventuality I prepared for 30-45 minutes earlier when I nominated Montgomery ($31) and saw Dobbins ($32) come up for bid right before Carson. The ability to keep your eye on the prize and maintain your discipline - sitting on your money for a while if necessary - is critical in an auction.

At first blush, it may seem ludicrous I would be willing to trust Bernard ($5) as my RB3. To each their own. The mere fact Tom Brady requested (and trusts) him suggests he has the same kind of upside James White did when they were both playing for the Patriots. The difference between White then and Bernard now is that the Bucs boast a significantly better offense now than New England did in Brady's final years in Foxboro. White ($2) is a player I have consistently passed on this summer for the simple fact that I do not have a good idea when I would be able to play him. He made sense here, however, because he was cheap and I can afford to be patient with him until Mac Jones wins the starting job. Xavier Jones ($1) was well worth the investment before the Michel trade. He will likely be my first cut now, perhaps for Tony Jones or Michel.

Total spent at RB: $84

The overspending at running back trickled down to receiver. While it is inevitable that some wideouts who should command double-digit bids will go for less than $10, it is not overly difficult to identify 10 receivers above who probably should have drawn bids of at least that much in this draft. Every dollar in an auction matters. When a $12 player goes for $7, that fantasy manager has increased his/her margin for error at the very least. In the best-case scenario, he/she should be able to apply that savings to a player that would have otherwise been outside of his/her price range.

We may have reached the point where there are more receivers that are worthy of being on fantasy rosters in 12-team leagues than there are spots to put them. A whopping 82 receivers came up for nomination in this draft and I could argue that at least four or five more deserved the honor. Rashod Bateman is the most obvious of the bunch and should get scooped up when the first waiver wire period hits, if for no other reason than he can be stashed on IR. (I will put in a bid on him with exactly that in mind.) Like most of his teammates this year, Nico Collins will have a low floor because of the dreadful offense to which he is attached, but his size/speed combination makes him an intriguing upside flyer. Josh Palmer is a Mike Williams injury away from being a very serviceable WR4 with WR3 upside. Dee Eskridge and Van Jefferson are in offenses that should be able to support three receivers more often than not.

Strategy: I hate to ruin the surprise of whom I landed at tight end, but my winning bid on Kelce had a profound effect on what I wanted to do at receiver. A Kelce-Ridley pairing would have been a dream scenario that would have probably cost me the ability to get Carson, so that was a no-go. There are at least 40 receivers worth starting in my estimation, so getting at least three I liked was not a huge concern. The beauty of landing Kelce is that he produces like an elite WR1 at another position, which in turn bumps what I need each of my receivers to do down a notch and gives my third wideout a low bar to reach in weekly matchups (your opponent's tight end, more often than not).

The beauty of this draft was that I didn't need to compromise at receiver. Getting three of my top 26 options at the position - and getting them all well under my valuation - was a coup. Allen Robinson ($27) continues to be undervalued despite the likelihood he will have the most competent quarterbacking of his career (be it Andy Dalton or Justin Fields). He is at worst a low-end WR1 with double-digit touchdown upside. For all the talk about CeeDee Lamb ($32) taking over as the alpha in Dallas, the target difference between Cooper ($17) and Lamb in Dak Prescott's four healthy games last year was shocking (51-29 in Cooper's favor). Of course, no one should expect a repeat of that, but it does lend itself to the likelihood that Cooper and Lamb will be equal partners as opposed to the former serving as the latter's complement. There is no way to justify a $15 gap between the two. Chase ($18) is one of the best receiver prospects to enter the league in the last few years. It seems as though his stock was suffering from the reports that he couldn't separate early in camp and a case of the drops. (Well, yeah. He didn't play football last year. Can we give the kid a few practices/days/weeks to re-acclimate himself to playing football again and doing so at the highest level?)

It pained me to see Claypool go for $7 right after I thought I got a steal in Mike Williams for $5, but let's not kid ourselves: both are legitimate candidates for 1,000 yards and/or 10 touchdowns. Bryan Edwards ($2) has been a bit of the right side of the hype machine this summer. My expectations for him are in the WR4 neighborhood, but there seems to be no question he will fall right behind Darren Waller in terms of the pecking order in the Las Vegas passing game. His tape at South Carolina was good enough to believe he will live up to the hype in 2021 after a bit of an unlucky and injury-filled rookie season. I will continue to give the benefit of doubt to Green ($2). While no one is expecting Prime A.J. in Arizona at age 33, there is at least a small possibility his last two years with the Bengals were more a result of being ready to move on from Cincinnati disguised as an aging receiver beginning to break down. Rumor has it (and by rumor, I mean a credible source who knows how NFL training staffs operate) the Bengals may have the most incompetent medical team in the league. I nominated Hardman for the sole purpose of getting some owners to bite on his hype and clear some money out of the room. No one bit. He is someone I look forward to watching.

Total spent at WR: $67

Observations: Andrews and Hockenson going for $11 apiece was painful to watch. Both players are incredible values at that price point. It might be worth considering nominating one of them early in drafts just to see if you can get a similar bargain. The former is a legit threat for 10 touchdowns and the other is a decent bet for 80 catches, so getting either one for $11 is a steal. As a whole, this position played out about the way most should expect in their 12-team auctions otherwise: the top six brought double-digit bids while everyone else was $7 or cheaper.

Probably the biggest shocker to me at this position was two of the tight ends that went undrafted. Gerald Everett avoiding nomination was a complete oversight by the league in my opinion. It would not surprise me if he is this year's version of Tonyan - a high-efficiency tight end who scores a healthy number of touchdowns. Cole Kmet is a player that has been bypassed in several of my recent experts' league drafts. While I have him at TE22 in my rankings, he is about an extra touchdown in his projection away from moving to TE16. I would be willing to bet Everett and Kmet will be regular starters in this league at some point early in the season.

Strategy: Dual-threat quarterbacks and McCaffrey are prime examples of fantasy cheat codes. A less obvious cheat code is Kelce ($30), who would have the WR4 last year and WR10 in 2019 if he was grouped in with the receivers. The fact he can usually be acquired around the $30 mark remains one of the fantasy market's biggest bargains. Three more advantages of getting Kelce: his durability, his weekly consistency and the added roster spot (or the lack of the need to stream the position).

There is a chance I am getting on the Kelce train one year too late, as my research earlier this summer concluded age 32 is about the time fantasy managers should expect even the most elite tight ends to fade. (Kelce will turn 32 in October.) However, there are multiple reasons why Kelce might be exempt from such a conclusion to his 2021 season. First of all, there is very little Patrick Mahomes cannot do. He trusts Kelce in just about every situation against any opponent. Kelce's route-running ability remains the best part of his game and makes him a tough matchup for cornerbacks - much less against linebackers and safeties. Neither of those factors seems likely to change much this year. Outside of ponying up for Kelce, I have no problem with anyone who wants to save a few bucks and grab Waller ($24) instead. After that, I would recommend dabbling in the Andrews/Hockenson tier or setting my sights on Tonyan ($7). The industry is so convinced he is due for regression that it has completely ruled out the possibility he will be more involved in 2021 as a result of last year's efficiency.

Total spent at K: $1

Total spent at D/ST: $3

Post-draft

The FFToday team

QB: Tom Brady, Justin Herbert, Joe Burrow*

RB: Austin Ekeler, Chris Carson, Giovani Bernard, James White, Xavier Jones

WR: Allen Robinson, Amari Cooper, Ja'Marr Chase, Mike Williams, Bryan Edwards, A.J. Green, Mecole Hardman

TE: Travis Kelce

K: Tyler Bass

D/ST: Washington Football Team

* Since traded for AJ Dillon

I was stunned that I ended up with three quarterbacks, much less three I have ranked inside my top 13. My good fortune was rewarded a few days later when I was able to acquire Dillon in exchange for Burrow. The quality of my running back depth is probably still my biggest question mark, but Dillon and Bernard should end up being solid flex plays on occasion. Wide receiver is rarely a strength of my team in this league, but this is one of my better units in my 13 years in the league. Tight end is obviously a strength, and I believe I have top-five options at kicker and defense.